Dealer/Healer
Description
Set in the 1970s and early ’80s, Lawrence Lau’s action-packed crime saga tells the true story of a reformed drug dealer who struggles for redemption from his perilous past. Chen Hua, among his friends known as “Cheater Hua,” starts stealing cars and selling drugs with his two best friends at the age of 16. Over the years, he continues to spiral into the deeper crime webs of the city, where he both sells and uses narcotics until he is ultimately caught and sent to prison. Once released, Hua swears to turn his life around, and becomes the leading counselor at a rehab facility. But his path to redemption comes with baggage from the past—a feud over territories in the city, the health of one of his dear friends, and an old love whom he abandoned years before. Moving like a high-speed freight train, Dealer/Healer is directed with period flair and zest—that hair, those clothes!—and lead actor Sean Lau conveys the complex trajectory of Hua’s life with style and nuance, ably supported by fellow cast members including Louis Koo and Gordon Lam.
Born in Pretoria, South Africa, Lawrence Lau is a director, editor, and actor, participating in films since the late 1970s. His directing debut Gangs (1988) earned him a nomination for Best Director in the Hong Kong Film Awards, which he was nominated for again for the film Lee Rock in 1991. Dealer/Healer is the 19th film that he has directed.
Film Details
Language Cantonese
Year 2017
Premiere North American
Runtime 101
Country Hong Kong
Director Lawrence Lau
Producer Peter Chan, Julia Chu
Writer Chan Man Keung, Sana Lam
Editor Wong Hoi
Cinematographer Xavier Cheun
Music Yu Yat Yiu
Cast Sean Lau, Lam Ka Tung, Jiang Yiyan, Louis Koo
Print Source Sil-Metropole Organisation